Kemp’s agent Stewart on trade talks: ‘Sometimes change is good’

“Eight years is a long time to be in one place,” Kemp’s agent Dave Stewart, the former star pitcher, said by phone. “Sometimes change is good. This might be the time to change.”

Stewart hinted at that a week ago, first expressing an openness for Kemp’s to be dealt to another team, preferably one that would play him in center field, a proclamation that mostly surprised Dodgers folks for its timing; he had played 42 of the past 44 games at the time.

Well, the trade talks are on, and if anything, the rhetoric has been bumped up a bit.

It’s clear things aren’t going the way Kemp sees them. It’s just as clear the Dodgers are starting to see it his way in terms of the possibility of a trade; they are no longer saying they won’t deal Kemp (or any of the other four established outfielders), and they are mentioning his name to potentially interested teams, as baseball writer Danny Knobler first said on twitter.

Five teams are said to have shown interest, or at least talked to the Dodgers, and you can be sure L.A. will keep in touch with those teams.

There’s little question Stewart is right. It’s probably time for Kemp to go….

Word is, via FOXsports.com, which first suggested Kemp’s openness for change, is that they’ve checked in with the Mariners, Rangers and Red Sox to gauge interest. Two other teams, one in the NL, is said to have shown interest. Yet, it may not be so easy. He has $117 million to go through 2019.